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31 December 2016

I wonder how many people are setting themselves some resolutions this year? What is the drive behind the choices they make? Are people attempting to make changes because they are critical of themselves? "I'm too (insert word here)", "I'm not (insert word here) enough", "I should/shouldn't be (insert word here)"?How about a framework for making resolutions? How about basing the choices you make on something fundamentally meaningful?I propose that Bronnie Ware's famous list of "Top 5 Regrets of the Dying" could be a great way of defining resolutions that will ultimately make a difference to the quality of our lives. Bonnie has shared what she discovered as a nurse in palliative care. Her findings, which she has extended into a book on the subject, are as follows:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.

It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.

This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.

By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.

We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.

1) Make a list of things you want to do in life and plan roughly when those things can be achieved. Make one of those things happen this year.

2) Find a better work/life balance. Try a session or two with a counsellor or life coach or read a book on the subject. Watch some Alan Watts lectures. Here's a great one.

3) Find a way to be able to express your feelings. Confide in friends. If you struggle to express yourself then try some sessions with a counsellor to learn how to express your feelings. We all have them. We haven't all had the opportunity to learn how to express them.

4) Dig out your old address book and make contact with people you stopped sending Christmas cards to years ago. Or look at those that you send a quick one-liner to and write an actual letter. Arrange to meet up with at least one old friend this year.

5) Allow yourself to experience happiness. If guilt or shame are getting in the way then find a therapist to work through those feelings. Everyone is entitled to feel joy. Find something joyful that you can do this year. Join a group, buy yourself something silly but fun. This doesn't have to be expensive. I got a lot of joy out of buying an old copy of Ladybird Cinderella which I absolutely loved as a kid. It was a few pounds on eBay. I still drool over the three frocks she got to wear in that edition.

Final note

I do not want to make light of the real struggles that some people face and loss, poverty and ill health as well as discrimination can have a very negative impact on our experience of life. This article is meant to highlight those things that we potentially do have a choice in, although not all of us will be able to make those choices. I remain sensitive to that.

30 December 2016

Counselling is usually for one hour, once a week, for a set duration. That leaves a lot of time spent outside of the counselling room, with the issues that brought a client there perhaps not changing an awful lot between sessions. So I sometimes advise on what steps a client can take to assist the counselling work and help them achieve their goal of overcoming grief, depression, unwanted patterns of behaviour or relationship issues.

Here is a short video done by a chap called davidji who succinctly and quite persuasively explains some of the benefits of meditation in this short (2:15min) video (click here if it does not show up on your device):

If you need any more persuasion, try this link from The New York Times regarding research in meditation and how it effects the brain.

You can start off by trying a guided meditation CD or looking on YouTube for a taster.

2. Keep a Journal

Keeping a personal journal was a requirement of my training. We had to bring in our journals from time to time to show the tutor that we were writing in them regularly. I really learnt the benefits firsthand of writing down parts of my process. There are a few reasons for why it was so useful:

Some of my clients keep a journal and write reflectively in between sessions. Sometimes, they might bring some of their thoughts to the next session. There are no rules about what's right or wrong in this respect - each person is different. What I can say though, is that those that keep journals tend to need less sessions overall. This is a hard thing to quantify, but it seems to me that the work is more "efficient" and it keeps us more on track if the client does this work between sessions.

Making a note of any dreams can create fruitful work too. It is quite common for clients to have a highly symbolic and powerful dream the night before a session.

3. Take up some aerobic exercise

Exercise raises endorphin levels in the brain. Endorphins contribute to our sense of well being, as well as being natural painkillers. Regular exercise will help you to feel fitter and help you get into shape, to feel healthier and better about yourself. Read this NHS article for more information on the relationship between exercise and depression. I wouldn't go so far as to say that exercise can cure depression, but it can help alleviate the symptoms by letting the body access it's natural, feel good hormones.

Aerobic exercise is the kind that gets you out of breath, so walking would need to be to the point that you struggle to speak and get sweaty. Swimming would need to be pushing your limits. Running and strenuous sports such as tennis and squash would count as aerobic exercise, as well as many cardio-based gym classes.

4. Take up yoga, pilates or martial arts

Although these are also described as exercises, I have separated them from aerobic exercise because the benefits are different (although strenuous yoga or martial arts will yield cardio benefits too). The benefits of these forms of exercise are that they strengthen the mind and body connection. These activities require a lot of learning, so the challenge is mental as well as physical. By doing these kinds of activities you can create the space to make changes in areas of your life where you are struggling. It is easier to break old habits if you harness your brain's ability to reshape it's neuronal networks by contunued learning. Joe Dispenza writes extensively about this in his book Evolve Your Brain, which I write about here, along with the reasons why I began to learn a martial art.

5. Pay attention to diet

I am not a nutritionist but I have long been interested in dietary matters. I believe that many people would feel a lot better if they had a dietary overhaul. Sometimes, I enquire about food habits with clients as a poor diet can lead to mood swings, difficulties with sleeping and the worsening of the symptoms of depression, anxiety, the menopause and pre-menstrual tension.

I have had a few clients give up caffeine, or at least cut down, because caffeine can induce anxiety in some people, and cause insomnia in others. Alcohol can lead to depression and anxiety the day following consumption. Many people do not realise the connection between what they eat and their subsequent mood. A food diary can help.

10 November 2016

Whether you were for Trump, Clinton, other or no one, there is no doubt that the recent USA election has had a profound impact on many individuals and on our collective psyche. The post-Brexit fallout was certainly something tangible in my therapy room and post US-election angst is, unsurprisingly, cropping up this week.

On a general note I have noticed this general state of unease can make us feel incredibly vulnerable and we can go into a more child like state. Our historical psychological tendencies might pop out during these precarious times. This can be seen all over social media with people exchanging either Critical Parent or Adapted Child responses rather than retaining an adult position. I have found myself drawn into it and it's sometimes a challenge to keep the frontal lobe switched on and calm down the amygdala before responding to an inflammatory comment.

Amongst the Facebook responses to the election I saw the following post by Alain de Botton, author and co-founder of The School of Life, which I found some comfort in. I found comfort in his belief that facing reality is the only way to navigate reality, in his assertion that optimism is not always healthy, helpful or appropriate and in his vision for us to engage our frontal lobes and think longterm.

As a therapist with a distinctly existential edge...actually as a person with a distinctly existential edge, I wanted to share those words and hope that others also find similar, authentic comfort.

With kind thanks to Alain de Botton for permitting me to share directly on this site.

It is an enormous and very rare privilege to have lived in the days of good government. Across nations and centuries, few people have ever done so. By a rare bit of luck, certain groups in a few corners of the globe tasted decades of this remarkable, anomalous blessing. They might, foolishly (especially if they travelled little, seldom read history books or had a very high estimation of their own populations) even have started to assume it was a natural or god-given norm. Yet the default state of almost all nations is quite other, it is authoritarianism, bullying, demagoguery, corruption, monopoly, racial segregation and state sponsored aggression and murder. We will not now, it seems, be living in dramatically unusual times; it was the years before that will be remembered as unusual: a daring bet against the facts of our nature. We aren’t sliding into a new age of darkness, we are reverting to a mean. Civilization was always, simply, an unlikely concept.

Those who are afraid are typically reassured by optimism: all will, eventually, be well, the kindly tell them. But we need stiffer and darker counsel. We should explore not what might ideally happen (which leaves us oscillating painfully between hope and despair), but what will happen if the worst comes to pass. We need to make ourselves entirely at home with catastrophe, looking it squarely in the eye - so as not to keep catching glimpses of it here and there and so taking fright anew every time. We stand to see that whatever comes to pass will, in a desperately reduced and pitiful form, still be survivable. A home could be built among the ruins. There might be some sort of life to be led, despite everything. Nothing is ever properly unbearable, not least because we always retain access to the best escape route. The Stoic philosophers of Ancient Rome, those pour souls agitated beyond compare by the the antics of their hysterical, thin-skinned murderous Emperors, were known to calm themselves down by holding up their veins to the light and calling out ‘Freedom!’ - knowing it could, if it came to that, all be over in minutes.

We shouldn’t be surprised by our fellow citizens. That is what the human animal is really like: very sweet at points from close up, usually generous to small children and the elderly, hard-working, but highly prone to delusion, tribal, offended by strangers, uninclined to rational analysis and with a fondness for slaughter and reckless messianic plans. The elite, routinely derided as ‘out of touch’ are not so on the basis of forgetting how much milk or the rent costs, rather on the basis of forgetting how dark and fragile human nature is.

There’s a natural longing to do something quickly and angrily. There’s an equal longing to give up and hide, the counsel of quietism. Neither feels right; neither endurance nor explosion. The only true avenue is to commit ourselves to years of careful, adroit plotting to bring about a renewal of that now ever more implausible dream: a land governed for a little while longer by a spirit of wisdom and love.

7 September 2016

Back in February 2015 I wrote an article entitled "Accredited This, Accredited That" in an attempt to address the confusion in our profession about the use of the word Accreditation to describe counsellors and psychotherapists. We have therapists accredited by the BACP, therapists accredited by the National Counselling Society involving a quite different set of criteria and we have therapists who are on an Accredited Register who may or may not have accredited status. In that article I questioned the Professional Standards Authority and they offered the following:

"The Professional Standards Authority is aware of the potential for confusion in the different uses of the word ‘accredited’. We are working closely with the Accredited Registers to prevent this confusion by providing clear information to the public. This will include a guide to different types and levels of qualifications in health and care, which we will publish in the coming months."

Counsellor and Psychotherapist Accreditation

The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (the BACP, at that time the BAC) introduced the concept of accredited membership back in 1983 and for a number of years it has been used to separate a tier of members who have been through their accreditation application process involving set criteria above and beyond the basic membership. The criteria is currently as follows(1):

To apply for BACP accreditation, you must:

•Be a Registered Member of BACP

•Have successfully completed a BACP-accredited or other appropriate professional training of at least 450 hours

•Have been in practice for at least three years and completed a minimum of 450 supervised practice hours

•Have an ongoing supervision arrangement in place for 1.5 hours per month

•Be covered by professional indemnity insurance

You will need to complete an in-depth application providing evidence of your training, practice and supervision. This includes a reflective practice section, asking you to write about your understanding of what you do, using examples from your practice.

In contrast we have the National Counselling Society (NCS) accredited membership level which requires the following (2):

Accredited Membership is awarded to a member who has successfully completed one of the following:

•A full qualification in counselling or psychotherapy practice atOfqual RQF Level 4 or Ofqual RQF/FHEQ Level 5 or equivalent which complies with the Society's currently published standards of training

There is also the facility to apply for membership without these requirements based via a complex committee.

The accredited status of these two professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy is clearly different. Added to that we have had, since 2012, the existence of the PSA's Accredited Registers adding a further type of accreditation into the mix.

The confusion has been the source of ongoing confusion within the profession and not just amongst service users. I have participated and observed many online discussion on counselling forums with what sometimes amounts to petty spats and resentment between BACP and NCS members.

Looking at all the differences in types of registration and accreditation - I'm a mental health nurse, I have an interest in psychological therapies, I read and write about the different professional bodies - and these differences make my head spin trying to make sense of it. So if it does that to me, what does it do to a lay person? Would a lay person even know that there's a difference between BACP Registered, or BACP Accredited? Or between BACP Accredited and NCS Accredited? Let alone know what those differences are. Also it's important to bear in mind that when people are accessing counselling or psychotherapy, they're often experiencing a mental health condition, often at a period of crisis in their life. It's simply not a time when they should be expected to parse information that's as clear as mud to begin with.

This is pretty much how I feel about it too.

The PSA, BACP and NCS's responses to this issue

I wrote the following to the PSA:

I wrote a blog post in February 2015 where I asked the PSA for their response to the fact that there is a lot of confusion around the word accreditation in the counselling and psychotherapy profession. There is a substantial amount of confusion amongst professionals too would appear from various online discussion groups.

I was told by the PSA back in Feb 2015 that they would be working on clearing up the confusion and I would like to have an update on this as it still an issue. I have been involved in a discussion only today on a counselling practitioner's forum.

They responded within 5 days:

Thank you for your enquiry regarding usage of the term ‘accreditation’. Since your blog post of February 2015, we have updated one of our Standards, specifically Standard 9e, which states that the organisation must ‘make its education and training standards explicit and easily accessible to the public to enable all those using the register to make informed decisions’. The assessment of this additional Standard started in April 2016 for both new applicants and existing Accredited Registers submitting their annual review of accreditation.

When registers are first accredited, we provide them with a communications toolkit with clear guidance on how to share information on their new accreditation status with the public. In this, we ask that they make it clear that it is they, the organisation, which is accredited and not their individual members (which distinguishes it from the BACP’s system of accreditation, for example).

We are aware that the terms ‘accredited’ and ‘accreditation’ are both widely used in healthcare as well as many other professional and public sectors. We addressed this in our original formal consultation and it was agreed that this was still the best descriptor for the programme.

I then wrote the the BACP and the NCS as follows:

When I applied for BACP Accredited status 2 years ago I was unsure about whether it was worth it with the ARs in place although decided to proceed for the professional development and personal validation that the process entails i.e. the self-reflective essays and defining of my approach. BACP Accreditation has also been nationally recognised as a mark of a particular level of experience (3yrs post qualifying and 450+ hours)

There is much confusion between therapists about the value of BACP Accredited member status. Added to that we have the National Counselling Society's Accredited member status that, as far as I can, requires significantly less experience and written work to apply for. I have seen numerous arguments on therapist forums where some believe that NCS Accred status is the same thing as BACP Accred status. NCS therapists seem to express concern that BACP therapists think that they are somehow better than NCS therapists if they point out the difference in criteria and BACP therapists are perturbed by the perception that their Accredited status is potentially being devalued in some way by it being stated that they are like for like. I can appreciate both view points.

This is all secondary though to the main issue, whichever emotions are provoked within (and without) the profession, which is that since the creation of the Accredited Registers we now have a confusing situation around the use of the word accredited which as far as I am aware, is not being addressed by the BACP, NCS or PSA.

I wrote to the BACP on 1st June and after some chasing up I received an apology for the delay in replying along with a response on 19th July from Helen Coles, Head of Professional Standards:

We agree that there is confusion as the same or similar titles are used for professional counsellors/psychotherapists in different contexts by different organisations. To some extent such confusion is inevitable given the small number of words to indicate similar professional statuses. `Accreditation’ and `Registration’ are not protected titles. What this means in practice is that any organisation can use them as a descriptor. As well as BACP and NCS there is UKCP’s registered status (as distinct from being on UKCP’s PSA Register) and NCP and BABCP use their own terminologies. Perhaps I should also point out that counselling is not the only industry (accountancy is another) served by a number of professional bodies.

BACP is working more closely with other therapy bodies, including UKCP, which provide fora for addressing such confusions. We also have regular contact with the PSA and were heavily involved in discussions about setting up the Registers. However it is important to recognise that other therapy bodies and the PSA are all independent organisations, making independent choices about the choice of titles to reflect different statuses and in the case of the PSA, using the word ‘accredited’ to describe the Register programme. BACP is always willing to meet other bodies and discuss such issues, while recognising it can influence, but not order.

As BACP it isn’t appropriate for us to comment on the quality (or not) of the schemes of other therapy bodies. The requirements for PSA registers are well publicised, enabling people to make their own judgment on quality. We would never encourage members (accredited or otherwise) to imply that members of some other professional counselling/psychotherapy bodies are of a different standard, but that does not negate our pride in our Accredited Members.

We are proud of the quality of BACP’s Accredited members and the BACP Accreditation scheme. A well-established, longstanding scheme, its quality is recognised by therapists, government, the NHS, employee assistance programmes and a wide range of counselling employers. The requirements of the scheme are well publicised, as is guidance on making applications, allowing all to form their own judgment about its worth. The demand for accreditation by counsellors and psychotherapists is steady. Because of this wide recognition as a quality kitemark we would be reluctant to have no current plans to change the title.

I wrote to the NCS somewhat later on 1st August and received a response from their interim CEO, Jenny Parker on 16th August:

Thank you for your email and apologies for the delay getting back to you. The Society is restructuring our membership grades at the moment, and the standards of registration and accreditation will change in 2017. Accordingly there is little point in our answering your queries until these changes have taken effect.

This is a new and interesting development and I do wonder whether they will be looking to bring their level of accredited status more in line with the requirements of the BACP.

Further opinions

Roslyn Byfield, a BACP Accredited counsellor working in Central London, also has concerns around the use of the word accreditation in the profession:

The BACP Ethical Framework is clear that adherents must not misrepresent themselves or their qualifications - a no-brainer, you could think, as this would constitute dishonesty, the opposite of what counselling and therapy stand for.

But unintentionally or otherwise, this could be happening due to widespread confusion about qualifications terminology. It could be argued that professional and standards bodies have been short-sighted in not anticipating the confusion which could arise between being an accredited member of an organisation and being on an accredited register (but not personally accredited). Since it’s well-known that there is still public confusion as to the roles of and differences between a psychotherapist, psychologist and psychiatrist, it follows that there is potential for more confusion when it comes down to the detail of levels of qualification.

Recent exchanges on counselling forums have shown that some practitioners are suggesting they are ‘accredited’ when, in fact, some are on the BACP register (accredited by the Professional Standards Authority) as a registrant or they are ‘accredited’ by the relatively new body, the National Counselling Society, the requirements of which are not comparable with BACP accreditation. Understandably, those who have gone through the rigours of BACP accreditation do not wish their qualification to be confused with one which is not comparable in terms of work, learning and reflection required. In addition some Senior Accredited BACP practitioners are aggrieved that the register icons, which since March 2016 must be included in practitioners’ websites and literature, do not include one for the senior accredited category (the two are for BACP registered and BACP registered and accredited).

This situation could easily result in some practitioners telling clients and potential employers that they are ‘accredited’, when in fact that is not the BACP accreditation which would be assumed by many.

To make the provisions of the Ethical Framework meaningful, BACP and other relevant organisations including the NCS should take steps to clarify this situation and issue advice to members and the public to prevent such confusion arising. BACP could also produce a third icon, which Senior Accredited practitioners could use in their marketing materials. If this situation continues unaddressed, it risks bringing the Ethical Framework and the profession into disrepute.

The British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) has a strange quirk in the way it uses the word “accredited” that can be summed up in one sentence. You don’t have to be an “Accredited Member” of the BACP to be an accredited member of the BACP. This anomaly stems from the difference between the standard English meaning of “accredited” and the jargonistic way that word is used within the BACP.

According to Google “accredit” means to “give authority or sanction to (someone or something) when recognized standards have been met”. The BACP have a register of counsellors and psychotherapists which they say is “a public record of therapists who have met our standards for registration” [http://www.bacpregister.org.uk]. So by including someone on their register the BACP are literally accrediting them.

However, they don’t include Registered Membership in their so-call “accreditation” programme, instead they refer only to “Accredited Membership” and “Senior Accredited Membership”. They clarify the situation by saying “BACP accreditation is a quality standard for the mature, experienced practitioner who can demonstrate high standards of competent and ethical practice” (my emphasis) [http://www.bacp.co.uk/accreditation/Individual%20Practitioners]. So “Registered Membership” accredits all counsellors including the newly qualified, while “Accredited Membership” and “Senior Accredited Membership” only accredits experienced counsellors.

This idiosyncratic use of the word “accredit” has become an issue recently because the BACP’s register has itself been accredited by another organisations, the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), and so anyone on the BACP register can now say that they are a member of the BACP’s Accredited Register, even though they may not be an Accredited Member of the BACP. A state of affairs that some might find more than a little confusing (even though the underlying situation is quite straight forward: registered members are accredited by the BACP and the BACP’s register is in turn accredited by the PSA).

The BACP could clear this up by renaming the membership categories to make their use of the word “accredited” more consistent with standard English, for example by renaming “Accredited Member” as “Accredited Experienced Member”; but that would stir up a lot of trouble among their members. For years there has been a strong cultural expectation within the BACP to become an “Accredited Member” as soon as possible after joining. They never had a rule saying you must do so, but by withholding the word “accredited” and the public acknowledgement that goes with it they were able to get a high uptake of their “accreditation” scheme without the messy business of making and enforcing official rules. There’s no way for the BACP to resolve the “accreditation” ambiguity without admitting explicitly that (although it is worth it for its own sake) members don’t, and never did, actually have to become “Accredited Members”.

If you have any comments regarding this please comment below. These things get discussed on Twitter and Facebook forums and the arguments therefore get strewn about. The organisations mentioned above will read the comments here so please comment here if you want to be heard.

17 August 2016

I was sent the following press release which I found interesting and thought was relevant to this blog. It talks about the therapeutic use of the cannabis extract CBD (cannabidiol) for treating anxiety. Unfortunately, most of today's street-available cannabis tends to be hydroponically grown Skunk weed which has a proportionately lower amount of CBD (the calming chemical) than THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) which can induce anxiety and paranoia. So self-medicating might not be the answer in this case. There is also an interesting article on using cannabis to treat psychosis here.

An entirely natural food supplement derived from the hemp plant could help thousands of people suffering from anxiety while reducing the need for medication. Cannabidiol (or CBD) is a naturally occurring extract produced from the cannabis plant which has been associated with a number of health benefits and has been found to have a positive effect on the symptoms of anxiety.

Numerous scientific studies have shown the beneficial effects of hemp extract on people suffering from anxiety. Anxiety is one of the most common neurotic disorders and affects a huge number of people every day. Around a third of people will experience episodes of anxiety or panic attacks at one point in their lives, while one in ten will be affected by severe symptoms.

Studies have shown that CBD extracts play an important role in reducing anxiety. In a double-blind experiment carried out at the University of São Paulo, the extract was given to a randomized group of people preparing for a public speaking event. Compared to the control group, those given CBD were found to feel significantly less anxious and more comfortable both in the run up to the event and during. They also reported thinking more clearly than the control group.[1]

Other studies using neuroimaging have shown that CBD can affect the limbic and paralimbic regions of the brain including the amygdala, which play a role in the fear response. When exposed to stressful situations, subjects who had been given CBD showed less activity in these parts of the brain and felt less anxiety.[2]

Neurologist Professor Mike Barnes said: “Anxiety is an issue that affects millions of people every day and CBD can have a real, positive impact on their lives. There is a great deal of scientific literature on Cannabidiol but it’s only in the past few years that we’ve begun to fully realise the potential. Much like the way Dopamine has revolutionised the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease, I am sure the role of Cannabis extracts will expand into modern medical practice. CBD is now credible and continues to surprise the scientific community. This is a very exciting time for Cannabis research and whilst international studies are ongoing, there is strong evidence to support the treatment of other major issues such as Epilepsy and PTSD. I believe we will see CBD becoming much more widely accepted as its beneficial properties are better understood.”

“There are so many misconceptions around this market and we’re a long way behind other places like the US where hemp extract has a mainstream acceptance.” said Tom Rowland, co-founder of CBD Oils UK. “Every week, we hear from customers that our products have improved their wellbeing. Whilst we would not advocate CBD as an alternative to professional advice, there is a growing weight of scientific evidence to support its use.”

It is estimated that the global CBD industry is already worth around $200million and the UK market is expanding rapidly. CBD Oils UK is the first company to offer high strength 40% (4,000mg) oil which adheres to strict UK regulations.

Tom added: “Some people may be concerned because the products are derived from cannabis but CBD does not have psychoactive properties and is entirely safe. It’s a fast growing market and we are proud of our products. The feedback from our customers has been overwhelming.”

16 August 2016

2 years ago today The Mail on Sunday published an article exposing the scandal of the Palace Gate Counselling Service and the owner John Clapham's abusive behaviour as a therapist and owner of the service and that of his colleague/supervisee/employee/client Lindsey Talbott, whom he promoted to Director of the service in the midst of the crisis.

Tina and I braced ourselves for the backlash and the ridicule and more worryingly, the impact on our private practice. We also risked losing our homes as we were threatened with being sued.

2 years on I can gladly say that I wholeheartedly stand by the decision to expose this abuse and to protect others from enduring likewise.

Sadly, Palace gate Counselling, Clapham and Talbott are still operating. I'm happy to say that most of the referral sources are now obsolete. However, NHS Torbay Trust still signpost to the service, which is ridiculous and quite disturbing.

I am also pleased to say that the push for regulation is gaining momentum (thanks to joining forces with Philip Doré) and our paper on regulation via the campaign, 'Unsafe Spaces' and the Palace Gate case were referred to in Parliament.

I have also gained a bit of a niche speciality in working with people who have had abusive experiences in therapy. Some have found me via that article which gave them hope that they would believed and that I would get it. It is a shame that we live in a world where this niche area is required but sadly, without regulation, far too much of this goes on and remains in the shadows.

It's pretty much behind me but I must confess that the behaviour of Talbott in particular got under my skin. She knows what he did. She knows it was wrong. But chose to make mine and Tina's life as hellish as she possibly could and tell the world that we were liars. Very scary. And she's a therapist...out there...as is he...

The good news is that it wasn't only the BACP that validated our truth; the Catholic Church cancelled Clapham's imminent ordainment, the Rosen Method bodywork organisation cancelled his internship and the police, although unable to prosecute, were very validating.

And finally, my business is thriving and I have made this a viable and fulfilling career. As is Tina's. Some potential clients might read about my experience and be put off. However, many have stated that it is because of my stance and experiences that they chose me.

It is hard enough promoting yourself as a therapist ... then you see all the other therapists. Traditional marketing can make us look at all others as competition, but I think that causes huge stress for therapists who are, by the nature of the healing work they do, more inclined to creatingrelationships than competing.

I have had people interested in renting a room at my clinic then saying "oh, you already have a reflexologist/counsellor/life coach so we would be in competition". I believe this is a thought pattern which hinders us in the business of private practice. Our professions are already high up on the scale of isolated working, why add to that?

Look around the area you live: similar types of business congregate in the same street or industrial park. Restaurants cluster together, car sales cluster together. Yet they are in competition - so how does that work? Well that area of town gets known for cars, so it is the place that everyone goes to when they want a car. By having their sales units close together, they make it easy for the customer to look around, rather than give up and stick with what they have. It encourages a sale as the customer has choice. The decision is which car is right for me rather than shall I have a car or not?

I believe that together we therapists are stronger and better. I like to take things a step further - cooperate, be helpful to each other, share knowledge and expertise generously and it comes back to you. Collaboration is a professional way forward. My peer group has provided advice, supervision, cross-referrals, recommendations, ideas, emergency back-up... in fact a whole host of practical and emotional help.

The team at my clinic have also worked together at conferences, fairs, talks, written articles and peer-led learning. This also presents us as clearly client-focused, as we ensure that the right referral gets to the right person. Result? Happier client, better word-of-mouth reputation for the group as a whole.

Look kindly at your colleagues. I feel blessed to have such excellent 'competition'. Their support helps me raise my game, act with integrity and also creates a safety net for clients.

4 May 2016

[PLEASE NOTE THAT A COUPLE OF MONTHS AFTER THIS POST WAS WRITTEN OUR UNSAFE SPACES REPORT WAS DISCUSSED IN PARLIAMENT.]Followers of my blog will be aware that I have been campaigning for the statutory regulation of counselling and psychotherapy in the UK. Click on my articles link and you will see a number of posts under the heading "Regulation Issues".Fellow blogger Phil Dore is the author of the blog unsafespaces.com. I made contact with Phil in 2013 whilst I was in the midst of the traumatic ordeal of raising a complaint about the therapist/clinical supervisor I had whilst in training, who abused his position of power with myself and several other counsellors who worked under him. I was relieved that somebody else cared so passionately about making counselling and psychotherapy a safer space and who shared my concern that being struck off a professional body is not enough to stop unsafe practitioners from continuing their unsafe practice unimpeded.Since going public with my experience I have received a steady stream of enquiries from people who have been abused by their therapist. The current complaints procedures are expensive, daunting, stressful and pretty much useless.In campaigning for statutory regulation I have approached my local MP Ben Bradshaw who has been very helpful, insofar as he is able. In a letter to Jeremy Hunt, Ben was told:

“We are not ruling out introducing further compulsory statutory regulation. However any decision to extend… must be based on a solid body of evidence demonstrating a level of risk to the public that warrants the costs imposed…”

Phil Dore and I decided to worktogether on this and have written the following paper. We have drawn upon existing research and research of our own to demonstrate that there is a need for statutory regulation.

Executive Summary

An increasing number of people in the UK, many of whom are vulnerable, are accessing counselling or psychotherapy services. However, almost uniquely among mental health professionals, neither counselling nor psychotherapy are subject to a statutory regulator, and neither the terms “counsellor” nor “psychotherapist” are protected titles. Voluntary registers exist, such as the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and the UK Council for Psychotherapy, which have been granted Accredited Register status by the Professional Standards Authority. However, if such registers strike off a practitioner for misconduct, there is no legal requirement for this individual to stop practising.

To find out how many counsellors and psychotherapists continue to practice after being struck off, withdrawal of membership notices were downloaded from the BACP and UKCP websites for a ten year period. Internet searches were then completed to look for business websites for these individuals advertising counselling or psychotherapy services. From these searches, nearly one in four of those struck off during this period by the BACP or UKCP appeared to be still practising. For the UKCP in the latter five years of this time period, every single one of those struck off was continuing to advertise their services as psychotherapists. These included individuals struck off for very serious allegations, including serious sexual misconduct.

A case study is examined of Palace Gate Counselling Service in Exeter. This company was struck off by the BACP in 2014 after the director was found to have committed serious sexual misconduct against two women, a counsellor and a trainee counsellor at the firm who he was seeing for private therapy sessions. In addition, the director and his co-director (both of whom practice as counsellors and clinical supervisors for counselling trainees) were found to have conducted a sustained campaign of harassment and defamation against the two women after they complained. However, the company remained in business, and both individuals remained in their posts as directors and counsellors.

The case was the subject of media attention, including in the Health section of the Mail on Sunday, and a sustained effort was made by local activists to ask organisations not to signpost people to Palace Gate. Despite these efforts Palace Gate continued to be publicised by the NHS, churches and the voluntary sector. The two individuals continue to practice counselling at Palace Gate and in private practice to this day.

From this evidence, it is clear that, from a safeguarding perspective, the current system of accredited registration is a complete failure. It is simply not effective at removing rogue practitioners from the counselling and psychotherapy professions. This safeguarding failure is putting vulnerable people in danger of serious abuse, including sexual abuse.Opponents of regulation suggest that counselling and psychotherapy are difficult to define, and that if “counsellor” and “psychotherapist” became protected titles, practitioners could avoid regulation by simply changing their job titles. To test this, we surveyed 151 people to ask which professional titles they would look for and accept a service from when seeking treatment for a mental health problem. 64.93% said they would look for a psychotherapist and 60.43% would look for a counsellor. By comparison 50% would look for a cognitive-behavioural therapist and 24.41% would look for a psychoanalyst. For a life coach, this number dropped to 7.09%. This suggests that certain other titles may need to be protected alongside “counsellor” and “psychotherapist”, but also that this need not be an infinite number of titles to have an impact.The protection of titles would be made more robust if combined with a restriction that only professionals with a protected title can offer psychological therapies for mental disorder. A survey of 50 adverts for counsellors and psychotherapists found that every one of them advertised their services as being for mental disorder. These often included serious and debilitating conditions such as eating disorders, bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.If the professional titles were protected, and only professionals with protected titles were permitted to offer psychological therapies for mental disorder, a practitioner could indeed avoid regulation by using a different title and not suggesting that they can treat mental disorder. However, these two surveys suggest that if they were to do so, they would incur a serious loss of business and they may find this to be not commercially viable.It is therefore recommended that:

“Counsellor” and “psychotherapist” should become protected titles and these titles should be subject to a statutory regulator.

Consideration should be given to also protecting certain other titles, for example “cognitive-behavioural therapist” or “psychoanalyst”.

The provision of psychological therapies for mental disorder should be restricted to professionals who have a protected title and are subject to a statutory regulator.